Platform updates

The world of investments keeps changing. Clients demand more. Regulations change. You need a platform that keeps you up to date and ready to meet tomorrow's challenges. That's why we keep updating Elevate so that it's better for you and your clients.

As part of our latest enhancements to Elevate, we're making Elevate even easier to use.

Elevate 22

Elevate 22 – updates to platform

We’ve implemented a number fixes to improve the performance of the platform and changed the trustee of the Elevate PIA from Standard Life Trustee Company Limited to Standard Life Aberdeen Trustee Company Limited.

See what's been introduced in previous releases

Elevate 21.1

Elevate 21.1: Enhancements to platform

Marital status drop-down menu options of ‘Married’ and ‘Civil Partner’ are now combined to become ‘Married/Civil Partner’ in line with new regulatory requirements.

Client Terms and Conditions wording are now updated to reflect our current Privacy Policy and other legislative changes.

Updated versions of the Elevate Adviser Terms of Business and Client Terms and Conditions are now available in the Literature tab.

A new process has been introduced to ensure we continue to hold only the client data we need by automatically deleting in-progress applications that have not been edited and saved in the last six months.

Elevate enhancements:

New paperless contract notes option

We have made some important changes to how clients can opt to receive contract notes. As well as still being able to opt-in or out of receiving all paper, a new option will allow clients to opt out of receiving paper contract notes only. To find out more information, please read our FAQ.

Tax year updates

Lifetime allowance reduction

The platform has been updated to reflect the increase of the lifetime allowance to £1,030,000.

Annual dividend allowance The tax-free allowance for dividend income has reduced to £2,000. Dividends are usually credited to Elevate accounts without tax being deducted. Any dividends received above this amount, together with any unused personal allowance, are subject to tax at the appropriate rate through Self-Assessment.

Continuation of ISA tax benefits on death

The tax benefits of the Elevate ISA will no longer stop automatically if a client dies on or after 6 April 2018. The Elevate ISA, together with all associated tax benefits, will continue until the earliest of:

the administration of their estate being finalised; or

the closure of their Elevate ISA; or

three years after the date of death.

This is sometimes referred to as a ‘continuing ISA’.

Additional permitted subscriptions

If an ISA investor dies on or after 6 April 2018, the additional allowance available to their surviving spouse/civil partner is equal to the deceased’s ISA holdings at the date of death or, if higher, the value at the date it stops being a ‘continuing ISA’.

We’ve updated Elevate new business and transaction screens, so you may need to enter extra information when making trades in ETIs.

For trades made on an advisory basis for UK based clients, in most cases Elevate will already hold the information needed, so there will be nothing more to provide. If the client is not a UK national you may need to enter National Identifier information.

Firms trading in ETIs on a discretionary basis will need to provide the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) for their firm and National Identifier (NI) information for the decision maker for the trade.

Where the client is a trust company or charity, an LEI will also be needed for this entity. National Identifier information will be required if the trustee is an individual.

Instant access to important information

New summary screen to provide quick access to key information as well as more efficient overview of your client's account.

What's new?

Quick and easy access to key information, including:

Elevate ISA and Elevate PIA remaining allowances

details on regular payments in and out and the next payment date

totals paid in and out of each wrapper

easier access to linked accounts

charge amounts and payment dates.

Visualise clients' drawdown arrangements

New PIA Income Summary that can be used with clients to aid income and retirement planning discussions.

What's new?

Offering you an overview of your clients' drawdown arrangements and the income being paid, you can see the before and after effect of a one-off income payment or any charges that you make to regular income from a drawdown arrangement.

It also provides projection illustrations to help you see what their pension may be worth in the future, and a comparative lifetime annuity quote to help illustrate the effect of income being taken.

Clear communications for your clients

Through consumer testing we've simplified the three most frequently used client facing outputs.

Easily review clients' death benefit options

We've made it easier for you to step up, record and view your clients' death benefit options, so you can be confident their funds will be passed on in the most tax-efficient way.

What's changed?

Flexibility when choosing how benefits are received; annuity, lump-sum payments or drawdown.

Simple to set-up and record clients' death benefit options.

Clear view of death benefit options and beneficiaries selected, and any changes that have been made.

Consistent options for both pre-retirement clients and those already taking drawdown

Pre-populated forms for clients to sign.

Enhanced auto-disinvestment functionality

We've enhanced our auto-disinvestment functionality to allow investments held in model portfolios to be sold automatically, when there is insufficient cash to cover charges.

What's changed?

Currently our auto-disinvestment feature allows us to sell your clients' investments to cover the cost of any Elevate and adviser charges when there is insufficient cash available in their cash account.

Where model portfolios were previously excluded from this functionality our latest enhancement now allows us to include investments held within model portfolios, and sell proportionately across the model when auto-disinvestment is triggered.

We're also introducing an additional £50 cash buffer to cover future charges. This means when auto-disinvestment is needed, we will sell enough investments to cover the negative balance plus an additional £50. Helping reduce the number of contract notes your clients receive and the frequency of auto-disinvestment.

Tax will no longer be deducted at source on dividends paid from UK shares held individually or in a fund such as Unit Trust, OEIC or Investment Trust (however, distributions paid from interest bearing funds and savings interest will continue to have tax deducted). Tax payers may need to pay tax after their £5,000 annual dividend allowance has been used by completing a self-assessment tax return (but there's no additional tax to pay if investments are held in the Elevate ISA or PIA).

Lifetime allowance reduction

The platform has been updated to reflect the lifetime allowance reduction of £1m.

Aligning pension input periods

The pension input period must be in line with the fiscal year. This means clients can no longer choose a specific end date.

Change to taxation of pension death benefits

Where death occurs after age 75, lump sum death benefits paid to an individual will be taxed at the recipient's marginal rate (where previously 45% tax would have been applied).

Scottish rate of income tax

From 6 April 2016, the Scottish rate of Income Tax will apply to account holders living in Scotland. The rate applies to income received from employment or from a pension. It does not apply to investment income or interest payments. The overall rate will remain the same as the UK rate for the 2016/17 tax year so there will be no immediate change in the taxation pension income for Scottish residents.

However they will have a change to their tax code which is now prefixed with an 'S'. This will be shown on the P60 that we send to clients at the end of every tax year for those taking pension income and the P45 for those who have stopped taking pension income.

Insistent customers

We will not accept transfers against your advice where the transfer is from a Defined Benefit scheme or a Defined Contribution Scheme which has safeguarded benefits.

Regular (drip feed) drawdown

Enhance the options available at retirement from the Elevate PIA.

What does this mean to you?

During the transition into retirement many of your clients may continue working to help supplement their income. Now you can offer them the ability to fund their retirement income using tax-free cash alongside their income.

With regular drawdown your clients can choose:

a regular payment of tax-free cash

an additional taxable income

a proportion to remain invested in their drawdown fund that can be used to provide a taxable income at a later date

a larger initial payment- all in one simple online process.

New business wizard

Improving your online journey.

What does this mean to you?

New on screen validation introduced, so commonly missed information is flagged earlier in the process e.g. bank account name or destination account for dividends and distributions

Improvements to the selection of ISA charges from the Elevate GIA which include, using the current charge selection as the default choice for existing clients topping up their ISA

A number of smaller enhancements to increase usability including the layout of the transfer screen and the consolidation of documents at the end of a wizard.

Contract note layout

In response to your feedback we've completely overhauled the contract note layout making it easier to use.

What does this mean to you?

a summary page provides a quick overview of the investment transactions for each product wrapper